Scientists have proposed a new way to prioritize regulatory review of the more than 15,000 chemicals used in food packaging and other food contact materials, most of which currently lack the safety data needed to protect consumers.
Researchers at the Food Packaging Forum Foundation found that current food contact regulations in Europe and North America fall short—for example, 87% of chemicals in food packaging lack adequate safety data to evaluate their full range of health impacts.
Rather than waiting for chemical-by-chemical testing, the researchers propose grouping chemicals by structural similarity so regulators and manufacturers can flag potentially hazardous substances more efficiently. Of the more than 15,000 chemicals reviewed, 1,222 are already known to be hazardous to human health, while more than 13,000 lack sufficient public data to determine their safety.
Using this approach, the team identified 38 priority chemical groups—including ortho-phthalates, PFASs, alkyl phenols, organophosphates, isocyanates and primary aromatic amines—that have a high share of known hazardous chemicals. Within those groups sit 3,547 additional chemicals that are structurally similar to known hazards. These could become what the researchers call "regrettable substitutes," or chemicals swapped in to replace a banned substance without being properly tested themselves—a pattern seen when bisphenol A was replaced by the similarly structured bisphenol F.
The researchers have made their findings publicly available through an evidence-based list of known hazardous chemicals called FCCprio, along with an interactive screening tool called FCCgroup that lets users check whether a chemical belongs to one of the 38 priority groups.
The researchers say the grouping method could reduce the number of individual regulatory reviews needed, allowing policymakers to act on entire classes of chemicals rather than evaluating them one at a time.
The Food Packaging Forum plans to host a free webinar on September 7 to introduce the study and demonstrate the new screening app to interested regulators, manufacturers and researchers.
Data from The Food Packaging Forum